dobs
Latvian
Etymology
From earlier *dobus, from Proto-Baltic *duob-, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰewb- (“deep”). In Latvian, former u-stem adjectives were assimilated into other classes; *dobus gave rise to both an o-stem and a yo-stem variant which later on became independent words, dobs and dobjš, with different semantic nuances (compare also, e.g., plats and plašs, or ass and ašs). Cognates include Lithuanian dubùs (“deep, hollow”), Lithuanian dauba (“hollow place”), Proto-Slavic *duplo (“hole, hollow”) (Russian, Ukrainian дупло́ (dupló), Belarusian дуплё (dupljó), Bulgarian ду́пло (dúplo), Polish dziupło (“cavity, pit”), Gothic 𐌳𐌹𐌿𐍀𐍃 (diups, “deep”) (< *deupaz), German tief, English deep.[1]
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): [duôbs]
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Adjective
dobs (definite dobais, comparative dobāks, superlative visdobākais, adverb dobi)
Usage notes
In general, dobs is more concrete (“hollow cylinder”), while dobjš is more abstract or metaphorical (“hollow voice”).
Declension
masculine (vīriešu dzimte) | feminine (sieviešu dzimte) | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
singular (vienskaitlis) |
plural (daudzskaitlis) |
singular (vienskaitlis) |
plural (daudzskaitlis) | ||||||
nominative (nominatīvs) | dobs | dobi | doba | dobas | |||||
accusative (akuzatīvs) | dobu | dobus | dobu | dobas | |||||
genitive (ģenitīvs) | doba | dobu | dobas | dobu | |||||
dative (datīvs) | dobam | dobiem | dobai | dobām | |||||
instrumental (instrumentālis) | dobu | dobiem | dobu | dobām | |||||
locative (lokatīvs) | dobā | dobos | dobā | dobās | |||||
vocative (vokatīvs) | — | — | — | — | |||||
Derived terms
References
- Karulis, Konstantīns (1992) “dobjš”, in Latviešu Etimoloģijas Vārdnīca (in Latvian), Rīga: AVOTS, →ISBN